Who would have thought it? A cuddly toy in the shape of a virus! These cuddly characters are incredibly endearing and educational too. Each one comes with a detailed scientific description and photograph of what he looks like under the microscope, along with medical tips on how to avoid picking up these bugs in daily life. Children seem to be totally fascinated by them, and it really helps when explaining all about why they are feeling poorly. The perfect gift to accompany a Get Well card. Also a brilliant present for medical students, doctors and nurses etc. You will soon understand why they are becoming amazingly popular! Start collecting now. FACTS: For at least 6,000 years, Saccharopnyces Cerevisiae has been used to make beer and bread! (it is also one of the many varieties of yeast used to make wine.) It's Latin name means sugar fungus of the beer though it is wildly used in biomedical research as well because it is inexpensive and grows quickly. One yeast can turn into one million in only 6 hours and a single droplet can contain 5 million. Yeast contains special enzymes that turn sugar molecules into carbon dioxide and alcohol. (Enzyme means in yeast in Greek.) The carbon dioxide gas makes bread rise and causes the bubbles in beer. The alcohol makes, well, the alcohol. In bread, alcohol evaporates. But in beer and wine, the alcohol levels increases until the yeast perishes (which is why the alcohol percentage level in non-distilled beverages is limited to the mid-teens.) So how did humanity discover the secrets of yeast so many millions of years ago? The air is filled with tiny wild yeast spores. At some point, one must have floated down and settled on a bakers dough or a jug of juice and the magical effects of yeast were revealed!